It Was Almost Twenty Years Ago Today

Remember 1996? Atlanta’s Summer Olympics?

Twenty years.
Wow.

Rideous Interruptous
The rain blew into Dunwoody.
The rain blew out of Dunwoody.
The sun shined in Dunwoody.
Dunwoody’s streets dried.
My coworker Al and I rode our bikes from Dunwoody to Free Flite in Sandy Springs.
As we waited for our 6:30pm ride to start the ride leader looked at the radar and canceled the ride.

WTF?

The rain was going to blow back into Dunwoody.
My coworker Al and I rode our bikes from Free Flite in Sandy Springs to Dunwoody.
We tooled around Dunwoody amassing a massive 9.8 miles in total.

I tried.

Rideous Reattempts
This morning evening (since I overslept) I plan to do the 25-mile ride I didn’t get to do yesterday.

ITP Flickr Pic
“What Do You Mean When You Say That The Rhine May Rise?” (Unknown, Germany)

What Do You Mean When You Say That The Rhine May Rise?
One of my favorite photos from my trip, though I can’t tell you why there is a building in the middle of the Rhine, or exactly where I took this photo.

Independence Day
No need to look at the calendar, we all know that today is July 7th and not July 4th.

You know what else I did almost twenty years ago? I resigned from my job. Today I am doing it again. Let’s just say that the time is right. My final day at my current position will be July 21st, the day before my 51st birthday.

Some of you have heard this plan already because I’ve been contemplating it for six months and have mentioned it whilst drunk. It’s a good thing that I don’t have any ships that my loose lips could sink.

This is perhaps the craziest thing that I have done in my life, but I feel that I absolutely have to do it. I have no job lined up and plan to take the next six(ish) months to relax, travel, and most importantly teach myself Swift (Apple’s programming language introduced two years ago). I know that when I get another programming job that I will most likely earn significantly less than I am today, but this is the only time that I can say being a loser — a 50-year-old man who has been unable to convince a woman to fall in love with him, have children, pets, whatever — and only having to support myself is working to my advantage.

Ever wonder how I could plan to go to Germany for two weeks, Iowa for one week, Vermont for one week, and Colorado for one week, not to mention take the one/two day mini-vacations that I’ve taken in the first six months of this year? Even with my rollover vacation from last year the only way is to free myself from the requirement of being in an office.

Did you wonder why I published my financial needs a few weeks ago? It was to convince myself that I could survive on my savings for six months. And I can.

What else will be changing? Well, I will be riding my bicycle a lot more, every day if possible; I won’t be going out for meals and beer as much as I have been, nor will I have to do so because traffic is insane; out of necessity I will be learning how to cook again (and what a great time for Kroger to open a new location near Glenwood Park!); I will be (trying to) limit my spending on things like computers. Hell, I might finally have some time to get my house in order!

My hiatus will not be all fun and games. For the times that I am not traveling I will be studying, coding, and practicing my interviewing skills for at least eight hours a day.

I’m really looking forward to not commuting to/from Perimeter Mall.

What happens if I cannot find a job at the beginning of 2017? Frankly, I’m not sure. While I have money in the bank it’s not nearly enough to retire at my age.

Wish me luck. I may need it.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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8 Responses to It Was Almost Twenty Years Ago Today

  1. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Wish I hadn’t overslept, traffic stinks, even though school is out. This I certainly will not miss.

  2. steve says:

    I had heard this rumor some weeks ago and thought surely it was not correct. Personally, I think you’re nuts. It would certainly be lovely to have several months off to enjoy life for a while and not worry about work, but eventually the bills will start to get backed up and that isn’t pleasant. Perhaps there are plenty of Swift programming positions going begging- I certainly hope so. And what did your boss say? Nuts as you may be, you have my support and I hope everything works out.

    An amazing stage yesterday. Everyone seems to think GVA will not have the jersey for long, but I think he may be able to keep it for a week or longer. 5 minutes is a pretty decent gap and clearly the guy can climb- perhaps not at a level of TJ or Quintana, but still not bad. It will be interesting to watch.

    We seem to be missing the big rain storms on the southside. We heard thunder last evening, but I don’t think it actually rained. A bit during the day…

    -FP

  3. Stacy says:

    Congratulations, Paulie! GOOD FOR YOU! I don’t think you’re crazy at all. A friend of mine did this a half dozen years back: sold her house and up and moved to the west coast jobless because she thought she was going insane here. I’ve lost my job in the past and had to find new employment stat and somehow it always works out….and here you actually have a plan, so I don’t doubt it will. You have this buffer and will know when you need to find something new. Like you said: may take a pay cut. But if it pays the bills and you restore your sanity, I say GO YOU.

    I know you have a bike ride planned tonight, but if you change your mind or the weather’s monstrous, there’s a group of us headed to Second Self Brewery; they’re opening a brand new tasting room (same location) and tonight’s the unveiling, plus they’ll have special beers. I know you don’t have FB but since the event is public, you might still be able to see the details on it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1006183276146409/?active_tab=highlights

    Last night’s storm knocked my power out for about 2 hours. It gave me the chance to open my windows though and hit they hay early. Air conditioner is back on now, but it was really nice to air out the place last night. It really wasn’t all that bad after the storm came in. Nice little breeze. 🙂

  4. The only guarantee I have from my current position is one more week of vacation if I can make it to twenty years, if this were to last until next February. This not a “safe” move, but I think it’s move that I need to take at this point in my life.

    Thanks Stacy! If things with my ride fall apart I will let you know that I will be joining you.

  5. bob says:

    Congrats Paulie!

    I’m sure your plan is well thought out and you have the skills many companies desire. You will not have any problems finding another job when the time is right. I have a buddy that took a 6 month sabbatical and travelled the world, said it was the best decision he ever made. Got to satisfy the travel bug and came back recharged. Do what you need to do and enjoy your time.

  6. Stacy says:

    (Oh – P.S…. Hank is always welcomed as well!) 🙂

  7. Barb says:

    Paulie – go for it!!!
    I’m ready to walk out the door today as well – but I don’t have your guts. (or, enough cash in the bank at the moment to do it)
    My boss is an idiot – I’m so tired of his superior attiude, when he does NOTHING to help us when we are overloaded with work. And – the others that aren’t busy, never step up to help, they just goof off while a few of us are busy as hell.
    So – I think I’m going to actually really start looking for a new job.
    Sometimes I hate my work ethic – I actually want to make sure I do a good job, even when no one else seems to care.

  8. HAHAHAHAHA!

    I just called the host hotel for EuroHash 2017 and the woman answered in German, as she would given that she is in Austria. And what did I do? I used my superior German language skills to ask her if she spoke English — which of course she did.

    I’ve given the hotel my credit card number, hopefully I will have secured a room for next year’s EuroHash in the next few days.

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